AZ18

Cross-cultural Study of Perception of Humor by English Native Speakers and Iranian EFL Learners

كارشناسي ارشد

آموزش زبان انگليسي

دانشگاه پيام نور نجف آباد

1397

97/06/26

مريم فرنيا

مسعود سعيدي

humor , verbal humor , joke , humor perception

As an instance of foreign language comprehension, L2 humor perception is proved to be challenging for the foreign language learners. However, the body of literature is heavier on the side of humor production than humor perception. The current study explores the extent to which Iranian EFL learners perceive different types of English humor in comparison with the English native speakers. The participants were 153 Iranian EFL learners at intermediate level of language proficiency who were randomly selected from English language learners in several institutes in Shiraz and 30 American English native speakers who voluntarily participated in this study.A questionnaire consisting six humorous texts of different types (universal, cultural and linguistic which in its place was divided into four subcategories of phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic) was utilized to obtain the quantitative data. The questionnaire was developed specifically for this study and its validity and reliability were estimated. Also, a semi-structured interview was the source of qualitative data. The results suggest at best less than 50% of Iranian EFL learners perceive English humor of any type and English native speakers’ humor perception is significantly higher in all types and subcategories. The best perceived type of humor is revealed to be morphological humor for the Iranian EFL learners and lexical for English native speakers which are both subcategories of linguistic humor and the least perceived type of humor for both Iranian EFL learners and English native speakers is proved to be the phonological humor which is again a subcategory of the linguistic humor. Taken together, the results of the present study serve those involved in the career of EFL teaching by the idea of adding humor to language classes in a way and those interested in EFL learning by the idea of enriching their time with finding something in English to laugh at.

98/5/14

سميه طاهري

56430